It's all about the container--inspiration hit just as I was throwing this tin out. It was the perfect compliment to the recipe book I was making for a bridal shower. Reduce. Reuse. Re-purpose. Recycle.

Another big week with loads of flowers going out to make lots of people happy. New this week fuchsia plume celosia, second wave delphinium, highland millet, foxtail millet, tapestry millet, ornamental oregano and zinnias!!We have a new crop of sunflowers, dark centered, mini suns and some green centered suns. We have gorgeous new variety of zinnia--raspberry, a deep red-violet, somewhere between red and burgundy scabiosa. (See photo below.)If you follow bindweedfarm on instagram you will have seen the photo of the nigella pod with the top snipped off. We have my sweet friend, Polly of Robin Hollow Farm, to thank for that inspiration. Unfortunately we are down to the last bucket of pods. Please consult your email and faxes for current availability and have a gorgeous sunny weekend.

The thermometer this morning was at 35--pretty chilly. We haven't had a killing frost but some of the white and lime zinnias got nipped. We delivered our last sunflowers this week and the availability list is getting shorter by the day. Quantities of some flowers are very limited...so this will be our last week for on-site deliveries. It has been a fabulous season and we really can't thank you enough. Your loyalty and patronage is much appreciated and makes this whole crazy farm thing possible. Thank you. Thank you. The last deliveries are always bittersweet, but there is much to do before the cold weather really begins.For this week we have available:

Buongiorno and Happy Labor Day Weekend. As you can see we are alive and thriving despite the crazy weather. I just got the cooler, barn and deck completely swept and sprayed off--clean and clear of mud only to drift off to the sounds of rain! Seriously--I am fed up with rain. (Although I must admit, the plants love it--they are dirty but strong and green and full of vigor.) Dahlias are a late season flower, really late for us and we have a ton of them. We are celebrating this abundance by dropping the price so do not miss out. The stems are long and strong and the blooms are fantastic, saturated with color. Our lisianthus, another late blooming flower, are beautiful and loving the cooler temps. Blooming slows down, but the plants are thriving and producing perfect flowers.I have been keeping a keen watch on the roses because the best bloom in late August and early September. Marvelous fragrant heads on long stems, the colors vary from pale ivory to deep apricot, often on the same plant. Their sweet scent fills the air and calls in every bee for miles.

The zinnias are amazing and producing like mad, unaffected by the cooler days. We have the full a rainbow of colors: white, lime, yellow, orange, red, coral and pink. Each morning RT makes his rounds sure there is nothing to harvest and returns time after time with armloads of beautiful flowers so watch the trucks carefully as they will be loaded with lots of little goodies, ten or so bunches, too few to put on the availability list.

Despite the wet weather we have some beautiful flowers--but it does give me great empathy for our friends growing flowers in the Pacific Northwest. I thought farming in the desert was challenging--but hot and dry I can deal with!We are running out and cutting like mad in between showers but you will see some dirty flowers again this week. Just in case we were not able to get every bunch completely dry please un-sleeve your flowers upon receipt and strip each bunch before storing them in the cooler. The foliage can retain moisture and turn spotty--not a good thing.The dahlias are really producing now and the stems are getting longer. We have gorgeous fall colors and a lovely pink and white. The zinnias are particularly vibrant this week--they are not fading in the sun. We have white, lime, yellow, orange, red, coral and pink.We have rows and rows of sunflowers. We are hoping for enough warmth to open so we will have enough to fill your orders.

The big news this week are dahlias and lisianthus. We have dahlias in several gorgeous colors, they are simply scrumptious! They are between 2 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter and vary in height. We planted several different colors and plan to have a good selection on the truck each week. We have lisianthus in four lovely colors--white/ivory, blue violet, lavender and a rose pink called "Carmen". The sunflowers are blooming in waves and we have a good supply of chocolate and green centered flowers.And the zinnias are out of control!! Walking between the rows is pure pleasure. Our zinnias are white, lime, yellow, orange, coral, red and pink.August is a tricky time in the season--a lot of varieties are coming into their second bloom and so we might have enough to fill a bucket on the truck but not enough to warrant a place on the availability list. If you are a regular visitor to this blog you may have noticed that I post photos of flowers that do not make the availability list due to limited quantities so please check the truck carefully so as not to miss any goodies.

Sunflowers and storms. Storms and sunflowers. This week has been full of both--we had a massive storm Wednesday afternoon that left us with many mini-lakes but no real damage! Yeah! The bells of Ireland, sunflowers, delphinium, atriplex and amaranth that usually lay down under such pressure are just fine. We lost most of the snaps, but have a new crop coming on soon, so no worries there. The only real damage are dirty flowers--when the rain hits our dry Idaho soil it bounces right up and sticks on EVERYTHING. We do our best to tidy up but the flowers this week have a lot of dirty stems. It is just a matter of giving them a rinse before use, our apologies for the extra work. (We do not rinse them because we cannot store them in the cooler wet and with the high temperatures the flowers must be chilled down as soon as they come in from the fields.)New this week are amaranth, euphorbia, new colors of dahlias and lisianthus.The demand this year is way up--thank you one and all--so please pre-order whenever possible as we have not had a lot of room on the trucks for extra flowers and we hate to disappoint you.

My apologies for not posting last week...it was massive as you all know. And well, sometimes you just need to stop and smell the roses...or in my case, stop and be with grandchildren.But the farm waits for no one, there are flowers EVERYWHERE and we have a full list with some new goodies. We have zinnias in a rainbow of colors, dahlias TDF, ornamental oregano, lisianthus, atriplex and new crops of asclepias (which will be shorter because it is establishing itself), Black Eyed Susans, delphinium and snaps. The sweet peas continue to amaze, although we are dropping some colors as they are beginning to suffer in the heat. So please take a look and let us know what we can get for you.